Reports: Seminario dies in prison

The Queens Courier has learned that disgraced former Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio passed away in jail on January 6.

The news was confirmed by a spokesperson for the Federal Medical Center at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.

Assemblymember Michael Miller said, “for over 30 years Anthony Seminerio represented the 38th Assembly District with passion and dedication. We should remember all of the good things that he has done for the community. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to his wife and his children.”
*

The 75-year-old Seminerio was sentenced in February 2010 by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald to six years in prison for defrauding the people of New York while he was a member of the State Legislature.

“From 1999 through September 2008, Seminerio engaged in a scheme to defraud the public . . . by using a purported consulting firm, ‘Marc Consultants,’ to solicit and receive ‘consulting’ payments . . .,” read Buchwald’s findings.

“I’m 74 years old,” Seminerio said in published reports following the sentence. “How much time have I left?”